Tag: bankruptcy

Richter, a parishioner of St. Joan of Arc in Minneapolis, said the group does not entail counseling. Rather, it involves a facilitated conversation in a community support system. The goal is to give people a space to make connections with one another.

Four years ago in September, I sat at the kitchen table in the rectory reading the newspaper. I was a parish pastor and had been serving parishes and schools for over 23 years. I saw the headlines and was disturbed. There was yet another story on clergy sexual abuse. I felt angry at Church leaders and fighting attorneys. I felt frustrated that this issue had been going on since before I was ordained. I felt sadness and compassion for victims and their families.

I was clueless that in less than a week, I would be named vicar general and moderator of the curia for the archdiocese.

Counsel for multiple parties with interests in the matter, including representatives of the archdiocese, parishes, insurers and clergy sexual abuse claimants, presented objections to the plans before Judge Robert Kressel in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Minneapolis Aug. 29.

In considering the Unsecured Creditors Committee’s objections to the archdiocesan plan, Judge Robert Kressel questioned whether UCC counsel Robert Kugler was trying to “inflame” his clients with misleading claims about the archdiocese’s plan and assets.

In a March 26 letter and video statement to local Catholics, Archbishop Bernard Hebda said that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is hoping to soon resolve its Chapter 11 Reorganization and provide fair compensation for victims/survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

About 1,500 plan solicitation packages for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ Reorganization were mailed March 17, marking a significant step as the archdiocese seeks to provide $155 million in compensation for clergy sexual abuse victims and resolve its Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The Diocese of New Ulm filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code March 3 in response to 101 lawsuits related to clergy sexual abuse claims made against it. The lawsuits were filed during the Minnesota Child Victims Act’s three-year lifting of the statute of limitations that ended May 25, 2015.

In a move that further enhances the chances a $14 million settlement secured by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis with Catholic Mutual Insurance will become available to victims, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Robert Kressel approved a future claim representative in the archdiocese’s ongoing Chapter 11 Reorganization case at a Feb. 9 hearing.

As the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis marks the two-year anniversary of entering Chapter 11 bankruptcy, it anticipates that two different plans for Reorganization will be put before creditors for a vote in February. A court order is expected to establish a 30-day timeline for ballots to be mailed to creditors, including more than 450 sexual abuse claimants. The archdiocese’s bankruptcy proceedings are the first among more than a dozen bankruptcies of U.S. dioceses that involve competing plans for Reorganization.

A federal court judge ruled Jan. 12 that a committee representing creditors of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis would not be permitted to file lawsuits against Catholic entities, including schools and parishes, that received payments from the archdiocese in the two years before it filed bankruptcy in January 2015.

U.S. District Court Judge Ann Montgomery affirmed Dec. 6 an earlier U.S. Bankruptcy Court ruling that the assets of 187 parishes, three Catholic high schools and the Catholic Community Foundation are separate and cannot be consolidated into the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’ bankruptcy.

After months of negotiations with insurance carriers, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis filed an amended plan for Reorganization Nov. 15 that increased compensation for victims of clergy sexual abuse to more than $133 million.